Scouting For Food Campaign Hopes Success Is In The Bag

November 11, 1989|By Amanda Barrett of The Sentinel Staff

KISSIMMEE — Don't be surprised today if you find a plastic garbage bag hanging on your front door. This morning hundreds of Boy Scouts from Osceola County will be distributing 10,000 to 15,000 of those bags. But they're not for garbage.

It's the Second Annual Scouting for Food campaign. The Boy Scouts are asking residents to fill the bags with non-perishable food. About 500 Boy Scouts will pick up the bags Nov. 18 and the items eventually will be distributed to local food banks, said Walt Larimore, Osceola County coordinator.

Scouting for Food is a seven-county effort, he said.

Here's how it works locally: After the Boy Scouts distribute the bags, the troops will pick them up next Saturday and take them to five locations: Buenaventura Lakes Community Center, Reedy Creek Elementary School, Osceola High School, Public Bank of St. Cloud and the Olive Garden on West Bronson Highway, which is the corporate sponsor and provided the bags.

At those locations, members of the three Rotary Clubs - Kissimmee, Kissimmee West and St. Cloud - will box and package the food, which will be taken to the Second Harvest Food Bank in Orlando.

Larimore said the food donated in Osceola will be distributed back to Osceola residents through several of the county's food banks.

''If you give a pound of beans, that doesn't necessarily mean that an Osceola County resident will get that same pound of beans, but the county will get back a pound of food,'' he said.

The Scouts ran into problems because of logistics, and that's why the Rotary clubs decided to step in and help, Larimore said.

''Last year, the boys were filling up their cars from places as far away as Poinciana and having to drive out to the Olive Garden, which was unsafe and inefficient.''

The seven-county effort last year yielded 84 tons of food, Larimore said, with Osceola County residents giving two and a half tons of food. This year, the Boy Scouts are intensifying their efforts and are shooting for five tons. ''The food banks estimate that that will last several months through the difficult holiday time period,'' said Larimore.